Wuqing County is a historic city, located in the southeast of Beitongzhou, close to Tianjin Wei, and is said to have flourished here as early as the Qin and Han dynasties.

Because it connects Tianjin Wei and Beitongzhou, the north-south canal also flows through its territory, so there are many businessmen stationed here, so the population of the county is quite a lot, it is said that the north city of Wuqing County is also quite lively, and its prosperity is not inferior to Beitongzhou.

Liu Chengfeng and his entourage spent more than two hours going straight to Wuqing County, but there were a lot of captains and errands brought, Wuqing's county Cheng led the way, Liu Chengfeng rode into the city on horseback, and the prefect Zhou Tai followed in a sedan chair.

Zhou Tai's resume, Liu Chengfeng inquired clearly, he was a jinshi in the early years of Hongzhi, first in Beijing to observe politics, and then entered the Ministry of Rites as a hall official, and then transferred to Beitongzhou.

From this, Liu Chengfeng can roughly guess Zhou Tai's character, Zhou Tai has not been in charge of government affairs in his life's resume, he did not have his part in decision-making when he was a politician, and he was only a hall official in the Ministry of Rites, and finally released a prefect, but unfortunately Tongzhou is different from other places, and the prefect's yamen has no decision-making power, everything has to rely on the arrangement of the military preparation.

This person succumbs to others, and it is inevitable that he will have a psychology of dependence, Zhou Tai is like this, he has never made a decision in his life, and there is a high top when the sky falls, he only needs to do things step by step according to the instructions of others. Therefore, Zhou Tai is not ambiguous in doing things, and he is also polite and respectful to Liu Chengfeng.

Working with such a person, Liu Chengfeng's pressure is not great, but this guy went out in a sedan chair, slowly, it was really annoying, the original road of an hour and a half was delayed for half an hour, plus the more the two sedan chair men went to the later, the more powerless they were, and the speed became slower and slower, Liu Chengfeng was not good at throwing off this prefect, after all, this time he brought a lot of captains, I am afraid that there will be a chaotic party ambush, and this prefect's yamen is also followed by more than a dozen errands, such a few people, if this prefect is in distress at that time, How did Liu Chengfeng explain to Bingbeidao and the imperial court?

When he arrived in Wuqing County, the sky was already a little dark, Liu Chengfeng took Wang Tao to the county office, the county government was already in a mess, the county Cheng went to negotiate first, and then called the county's main book, which had just come out of the inner office, and gave Liu Chengfeng and the listless Zhou Tai on the side a salute, and said: "Liu Qianhu, Lord Zhou......"

Zhou Tai may have been a little tired all the way over, and he was a little weak all over, but he just said, "Go in and talk." ”

Arrived at the county hall, Liu Chengfeng asked about the main book, the main book answered one by one, Wuqing County County Commander Zheng Sheng lived in the inner office, the general situation and the news obtained in the banquet was similar, the main book finally made a summary, said: "The county Zun also had an order in the house when he was in Mao, and then there was only one county Zun in the whole house from three quarters to three quarters of Chen, everyone deduced that the county Zun was only afraid that he would be killed in this hour, and when the county Zun was stabbed, a dagger was inserted in his chest, and his death was peaceful. Presumably, those chaotic parties have superb martial arts and kill them with one blow. ”

Liu Chengfeng heard that the meaning of this master book had been confirmed that the county commander Zheng Sheng was assassinated by the rebellious party, and couldn't help but smile and said: "It's still too early to tell, are all the people in this yamen imprisoned and guarded?" Was anyone moving on site? ”

The master bookkeeper smiled bitterly and said: "My lord, after the incident, the villain organized a messenger to block this place, and he was not allowed to enter or leave, and as for the place where the county lord was killed, he did not call anyone to move, and immediately sent someone to Tongzhou Mansion to wait for your lords to come." ”

This master book is just the third-in-command of Wuqing County, and the chief official was killed, so it was naturally not his turn to take care of this matter, so he protected the scene and immediately reported it to the Tongzhou Mansion, which was also expected.

Liu Chengfeng nodded and said, "Then please lead the way, let's go to the back office to have a look." ”

After that, the main bookkeeper, the county Cheng, Liu Chengfeng, Zhou Tai, and Wang Tao entered the inner office together, and the general yamen will set up the internal office in addition to the public hall and the setting of various study rooms. After all, most of the officials of the imperial court are released, and it is impossible for officials to set up a house for this purpose, who knows if they will move elsewhere after three or two years? As for the kind like later generations, it is also a fool's dream to buy a house in many places and live for a while in your spare time, because the transportation in these years is basically by walking, and buying a house in a different place is afraid that you will not be able to live in it for a lifetime. Therefore, the prefects and prefects in various places have internal offices, and even thousands of households have such settings, and the internal and external yamen are connected first, and they are relatively independent.

The master book led Liu Chengfeng and others into the moon hole is the inner office, the setting inside is quite elegant, there is a flower hall, more than a dozen side rooms, like a courtyard, in the middle is a patio, and then there is the shadow wall, just around the shadow wall, I heard the low cry from the flower hall, the master book heard this voice, cautiously glanced at Liu Chengfeng and Zhou Tai, and said in a low voice: "This is the family of the county lord, because of the loss of her husband, so I wept." ”

The death of the county honor, after all, made Zhou Tai a little sad, and Zhou Tai was a scholar, so he was more or less merciful, so he said to Liu Chengfeng: "Liu Qianhu, you and I will go to condole, how about it?" ”

Liu Chengfeng nodded, and the two of them went in with heavy faces, and saw that there were two women in this flower hall crying separately, and the master said in a low voice: "The older woman is the county lady, and the younger one is the concubine of the county lord in recent years." ”

I saw that the county lady was over forty years old, and when she saw the living people coming in, she came to salute with grief. Liu Chengfeng is not very good at this kind of thing, but Zhou Tai is quite sophisticated, and whispered some words of mourning and the like.

Liu Chengfeng's eyes noticed the little concubine, this little concubine is only two decades old, and she was born well, but this cry, her eyes are already swollen, and the rain falls on the pear blossoms, which looks pitiful.

The county lady Wang heard that one of the two was a prefect and the other was a thousand households, so she didn't dare to slack off, so she asked someone to serve tea to the two.

The people went to the tea, Liu Chengfeng and Zhou Tai sat down to rest for a while, and the lady said a few words, the lady said this morning's experience, the situation is the same, that night, Zheng Sheng slept in the lady's room, but this lady has a habit, she has to wake up at the hour, to go to the Buddha hall to worship the Buddha, according to her description, when she got up, Zheng Sheng slept very well, snoring, Wang because he thought that he was going to Fucheng this morning, so he also called him, but Zheng Sheng slept very soundly, and did not wake up, Just squeaked and whined.

Wang is a person with a hard personality, although his husband died, his eyes were red and swollen from crying, but when he said this, he was eloquent and beautiful, and his memory was also excellent. This woman's face looked a little sallow, but she was in good spirits, but her voice was a little hoarse, which made Zhou Tai feel a little respectful.

However, Zheng Sheng's concubine only cared about drinking and crying beside her, which was completely unsophisticated, which made Zhou Tai frown secretly.

Liu Chengfeng remembered that he wanted to go to see the scene, so he didn't want to continue chatting, so he took out a silver ticket of one hundred taels of silver from his sleeve and comforted Wang: "Madame's mourning, these are Liu's little intentions, although Liu has never known Zheng Countyling, but he has been famous for a long time, and I hope to accept this shallow gift." ”

Wang took it, but Zhou Tai's face was a little cramped, he came in a hurry, where would he bring any money? However, there are a few taels of broken silver on his body, but as soon as Liu Chengfeng makes a move, it is a silver ticket of one hundred taels of silver. But if you don't give some gifts, it seems that you can't say it, when you are hesitating, Liu Chengfeng patted him gently, Zhou Tai glanced at Liu Chengfeng in shock, and then found that Liu Chengfeng's hand pulled his sleeve, and in the wide sleeve, a silver ticket was stuffed into Zhou Tai's hand.

Zhou Tai immediately understood that this was Liu Qianhu giving himself the steps, and he was very grateful, and couldn't help but think: "People in the Beijing Division say that Liu Chengfeng is a fool and stunned, but in the eyes of the old man, it may not be. ”

Zhou Tai took out the silver ticket and handed it to Wang, and finally did not forget to glance at Liu Chengfeng gratefully.

One hundred taels of silver is not too much for Zhou Tai, but it is not too little, and this kindness is not too small.

Wang thanked him repeatedly, Liu Chengfeng and Zhou Tai withdrew, and then led by the chief bookkeeper to the bedroom where the county order was assassinated.

Liu Chengfeng and Zhou Tai went in together, and immediately smelled a fishy smell, there were already two servants waiting in it, and as soon as these two saw Liu Chengfeng and Zhou Tai coming in, they immediately saluted Liu Chengfeng and Zhou Tai.

Liu Chengfeng just nodded at their jaws, and then turned his attention to Zheng Sheng on the couch, Zheng Sheng's whole person fell sideways on the couch, a dagger on his chest went straight to the heart, there were no traces of messiness in this room, and the scene was also very well protected, and there was no trace of random movement.

Liu Chengfeng glanced at the room, and then said to him, "Go, take out the dagger." ”

The two servants responded, carefully took out the dagger, at this time Zheng Sheng had been dead for many hours, so when he pulled out the dagger, there was no blood spurting out, and he handed the blood-stained dagger to Liu Chengfeng, Liu Chengfeng wrapped the handle of the dagger with a handkerchief, and looked at it in his hand for a moment, only to see that the blade of the dagger obviously had tooth marks, obviously the dagger was into the bone, and it was worn in many places.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Chengfeng asked the servant to carry the body out for autopsy, while Liu Chengfeng and Zhou Tai stayed in the room to continue to check.

This kind of thing was originally done by the yamen officials, where could Zhou Tai stand this environment? His face had already turned pale, and he looked like he was about to gag, but this time it was a county order after all, and Liu Chengfeng also came in, if he, the prefect, didn't come with him, he really didn't give Liu Qianhu face to others, so he could only endure it forcibly.

Liu Chengfeng was observing the layout in the bedroom while chatting with Zhou Tai to divert Zhou Tai's attention.

"What do you think?"

Zhou Taidao: "What did Liu Qianhu say? ”

Zhou Tai really didn't know how to look at it, but he felt that it was too uncomfortable to stay here, so he asked back.

Liu Chengfeng said: "If it is really as the master and the lady said, Zheng County Order died between three quarters of the hour and three minutes of the hour, and it is said that during this period, family members in the house often walked in front of the door, and there were no traces of damage to the doors and windows, which means that unless the murderer killed Zheng County Order from the sky, it is impossible to commit murder." ”

When Zhou Tai heard the words falling from the sky, he couldn't help but look at Fang Liang, and couldn't help but shudder, and said, "Lord Liu didn't mean it...... There are ghosts ......."

Liu Chengfeng was speechless, this guy's comprehension ability is really strong, and he couldn't help but smile bitterly: "I didn't mean that, I was thinking, what method did the murderer use to enter this house, and then killed the county order and retreated calmly." ”

Zhou Tai was also a little ashamed at this time, after all, he was a scholar, and the gentleman respected ghosts and gods and stayed away, so he really seemed to be too timid.

Zhou Tai coughed, cheered up and said: "Yes, this place is closed on all sides, but I don't know how the thieves came in, and how they killed Zheng County's order and retreated, could it be that this assassin is in this inner office?" ”

(To be continued)